The present invention relates to a method for assigning a unique identifier to a mobility management entity in a core network of an SAE/LTE communication system as well as a method for implementing a mobility management entity in a core network of an SAE/LTE communication system. Further, the invention relates to a mobility management entity of a core network of an SAE/LTE communication system.
The most recent developments show that in the field of mobile communication, it is desired to transmit ever increasing quantities of data. Existing mobile communication standards, such as, for example, GSM or UMTS in future will no longer be sufficient in order to transmit such quantities of data. The 3GPP consortium (3GPP=Third Generation Partnership Project) thus has set a target for the next generation of mobile communication systems, among other things, to increase the rate of data transmission, transmission times as well as transmission capacity. Such efforts are referred to as system architecture developments (SAE=System Architecture Evolution) and/or long-term development (LTE—Long Term Evolution). The previously existing landline communications will be completely replaced by packet communication with the new system architecture.
This type of SAE/LTE communication system comprises an access network or wireless network, the so-called Radio Access Network (RAN), as well as a core network, the so-called Core Network (CN). In this way, the new SAE/LTE communication system supports the simultaneous operation of different access networks. This means that the system architecture development makes possible, for example, the mobility, the handover, and the roaming among the different access networks. For example, this type of access network/wireless network can be the UTRAN (UTRAN=Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network). The core network has functional units. A user level unit is defined for the user level and a control level unit is defined for the control level. The user level unit comprises two logic gateways, namely the so-called serving gateway and the packet data network gateway. The serving gateway terminates the interface to the access network/radio network (RAN). The packet data network gateway terminates the interface to the packet data network. For example, the packet data network gateway assigns an IP address to the user terminal. Part of the control level unit, for example, is the so-called mobility management entity (MME=Mobility Management Entity). A mobility management entity has different functions. Thus, e.g., signaling is processed for control purposes, for example, for mobility, by the mobility management entity. Thus, a mobility management entity, among other things, can be appropriate for control communications or signaling in connection with registering, localizing, authenticating and roaming. Further, a mobility management entity can be appropriate for distributing pager communications to the base stations of the access network/radio access network, the so-called eNBs or eNode Bs. These base stations of the access network/radio access network are connected to the mobility management entities via so-called S1 interfaces.
In this way, the S1 interfaces can be flexibly utilized in the SAE/LTE communication system That is, a base station (eNB) can be connected simultaneously to different mobility management entities via S1 interfaces. Each mobility management entity has a plurality of parameters and at least one unique identifier, to which values must be assigned in order to produce a connection to the base stations. At the present time, these parameters and the at least one unique identifier are assigned by a so-called configuration unit, in particular, by a planning tool or a configuration tool on a server, wherein a human interaction is necessary in the planning phase. That is, a network operator must assure that the identifiers assigned to the mobility management entities are uniquely assigned, i.e., each identifier is assigned only once within the core network of a network provider. This means a manual extra expense for the network operator. If, for example, a new mobility management entity is added to the core network, the network operator must assign a new unique identifier to this newly added mobility management entity by means of the configuration unit. This means an extra expense for the network operator. The same applies when a mobility management entity that already exists must be newly characterized.